Landmines – Cambodia’s Hidden War

By Isaiah Hessel, Year 10

In December of 2023, I went on a trip to Cambodia with my family. On the first day in Siem Riep, we went to visit Aki Ra’s Landmine Museum. Aki Ra is a former Khmer Rouge child soldier and he founded this museum that is the first of its kind in the world. When we arrived, a friendly museum guide with a prosthetic leg welcomed us. He explained that he was a landmine survivor and an orphan. It was thanks to Aki Ra that he had found a home, along with many others, in the grounds of the museum and had received help with his injury. He showed us around and explained to us how as a young boy in Cambodia, he lost his parents, siblings and his leg in one day. He narrated the heartbreaking story of how one morning, when he was playing with his siblings and his parents, he stepped on an anti-tank landmine and the blast tore his leg off and killed his family. He guided us through the museum, showed us about the different types of landmines and explained how they are so well hidden in the ground. He taught us about the Khmer Rouge, the child soldiers and the story of Aki Ra. However, in order to understand the story of Aki Ra, it is essential to know something about the recent history of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge.

On 14 of April, 1975, during the Cambodian Civil War, the communist group known as the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge defeated the government of General Lon Nol, which was backed by the Americans. After taking power, the Khmer Rouge began a harsh and violent regime. Many soldiers and government workers were executed. The Khmer Rouge forced millions of people to leave the cities and move to the countryside, under the pretense that the Americans were going to bomb the capital and that they could return in a few days. This was not true. Instead the evacuation of Phnom Penh marked the start of a brutal period in Cambodia’s history. This was the beginning of the plan to transform Cambodia into a classless utopia, at which everything was to start anew. The year 1975 became the year Zero, “ the dawn of an age in which there [were to] be no families, no sentiment, no expressions of love or grief, no medicines, no hospitals, no schools, no books, no learning, no holidays, no music, no song, no post, no money – only work and death.” (-John Pilger from his 1979 documentary The Silent death of Cambodia).

(Photograph taken at the Fall of Phnom Penh by Roland Neveu)

During that period, all individuals who were considered intellectuals, such as doctors, lawyers, schoolteachers, as well as persons who wore eyeglasses, Cambodian-Chinese, Cham Muslims, Ethnic Vietnamese, Buddhists and Buddhist monks were executed or worked to death during what is now known to be the Cambodian Genocide. It is estimated that the total number of deaths in the Cambodian genocide was approximately 1.2 to 2.8 million deaths, which is calculated to have been approximately one quarter of Cambodia’s population at the time (Britannica.com). Research from examining the mass graves shows that 1,386,734 is the number of deaths from executions and over one million the deaths from disease, overwork and starvation. (Wikipedia.com; Ben Kiernan – Yale University).

(Photograph taken of skulls of Cambodian genocide victims by Roland Neveu)

During this genocide, children were taken from their familes to be trained as child soldiers. They faced intense training to be the ideal soldiers of the new communist state. Today they are held partially responsible for Cambodia’s current landmine issue because they, along with the Vietnamese forces and the former government forces under General Lon Nol, planted landmines in Cambodia’s soil. The leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, called landmines his “perfect soldiers” because they can still cause civilian casualties long after conflicts finish. Sadly, although held partially responsible for the role they played in laying down these “perfect soldiers”, these child soldiers were unaware of what they were doing.

The child soldier Aki Ra was born Eoun Yeak sometime between 1970 and 1973 in a small village near the city of Siem Reap. His exact date of birth is unknown because his parents were killed either by landmines or by the Khmer Rouge regime when he was 5 years old and, like many other children, he went to live in the Cambodian jungle. Later in his childhood, when he was 12, he was forced to join the army by the Khmer Rouge forces. His role was to lay down landmines, as many as he could. This was a dangerous job and he recalls the many fatal mistakes his friends made while handling the mines. Under the Khmer Rouge regime there were no proper burials and he remembers his friends’ corpses simply being disposed of in the river, to float away. In a single day, Aki Ra planted between 100 and 1000 landmines as “[They are] easy to lay because you just take out the safety pin, bury it in the grass or dig a small hole to put it in, it’s very quick.” ( Aki Ra- Asia Society). After the conflict in Cambodia was over, Aki Ra repented of his actions, even though he had been a child soldier and did not have the capacity to fully understand what he had done. He decided to dedicate himself to removing the mines he himself had placed, and started to do so with just a stick and a leatherman knife. Between 1990 and 2005, he managed to deactivate around 50,000 landmines and to demine. In 1997 he created the Cambodia Landmine Museum and the Cambodia Self-Help Demining, whose mission is to educate and to try and remove as many landmines as possible until there are none (Cambodia Landmine Museum).

Aki Ra is one man trying to change his country, but Cambodia itself also recognized the urgency of the situation and became a signatory to the Ottawa Treaty. This treaty bans the use of landmines and Cambodia has been a signatory since 2000. However, Cambodia’s landmine crisis is currently considered one of the worst. Under the treaty, there was a goal of demining the country by December 2025, but unfortunately this goal was not achieved. Cambodia remains one of the most landmine contaminated countries in the world, along with cluster munition remnants and explosive remnants of war (ERW). The northwestern part of the country, around the Thai border, is heavily affected by landmines planted from the 1960s up until 1998, during the long years of war. Although the exact number of devices is not fully known, Cambodia is known to have extensive contamination of munition clusters from the American bombings during the Vietnam war along its borders with Laos and Vietnam.

Aki Ra showing the landmines he has removed. (Image: Getty Images – Google)

(Image taken from Landmines and Munition Clusters Monitor)

From 1979 until 2024, there have been a total of 65,086 casualties – men, women and children. Many survivors are left with life-changing injuries. Some lose arms or legs, others lose their sight and suffer from permanent physical pain. Without proper medical care or access to modern prosthetic limbs, some survivors must use simple wooden prosthetics or go without any at all. These basic replacements can be painful to wear. Unfortunately, modern prosthetics are expensive and the majority of the survivors, poor villagers, simply do not have the means to afford them.

(Image taken from Landmines and Munition Clusters Monitor)

The survivors are often excluded from society because the physical disabilities make it difficult, sometimes even impossible, to work or for the young children to attend school. Many survivors struggle to find jobs and become dependent on others.

Landmines have also created thousands of orphans. When the parents are killed, the majority of children are left without any financial support. Most are forced to leave school and must find work to help support the siblings. With lack of education, the cycle of poverty can persist for generations.

Aki Ra recognized this consequence of the landmines and created an orphanage. In this orphanage, the children receive education, and financial and emotional support. The orphanage is a home for the maimed where they can at least receive a heavy and often painful wooden limb. However, a wooden limb is better than none. It is a precious effort leading to positive change and impact in Cambodian society.

(Images taken from Statista)

The reason I am writing this is to bring awareness to the Ecolint community about the story of Aki Ra and the long lasting impact of landmines in Cambodia and worldwide. After meeting Aki Ra and a survivor (an amputee and orphan brought up by Aki Ra), I felt the urge to support him and his work. He explained how easily 100 USD could change the life of a survivor, by giving him a prosthetic limb. That is the cost for a new life. 100 USD can also help in the effort of the removal of landmines. During my conversation with Aki Ra I promised him that I would try my best to spread news of his efforts here at Ecolint and to teach others about the history of Cambodia and his efforts to delandmine the country. It is for this reason that I have chosen this project as my passion project and will be trying to create awareness and raise funds to support him and his organizations. This article is the start of my keeping the promise I made to Aki Ra and to the people of Cambodia.

Article written by Isaiah Hessel, 10th grade

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Pictures of myself at the Landmine Museum in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

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